So You’re the New Sales Manager – How Are You Going To Get Up To Speed Quickly?
Taking Over an Existing Team – Part 3 of 3
This is the third of three posts detailing a few quick tips I used when I was hired to take over an underperforming sales team ranked last in their region. Within six months, this team became the number one sales team in both volume and volume growth, and they held that position for the next fifty consecutive months…
To read the first post in this series, follow this link.
To read the second post in this series, follow this link.
The New Manager Questionnaire
At the end of the expectations-setting first meeting, I handed out the salesman questionnaire below (it’s really for the manager’s benefit, so we’ll call it the New Manager Questionnaire) and arranged a time to meet with each rep for one-on-one sessions to discuss their answers. Although I had twenty salespeople at the time, I really wanted to get these all done quickly, so I scheduled meetings from 6:30 AM to 9:00 PM the next day. (The salespeople chose their meeting times.)
The questionnaire was designed to give me a sense of who they were, provide them an avenue to vent about whatever it was that needed changing, and to deliver a measure of self awareness to this underperforming group.
Here are the 20 best questions you can ever ask a new sales team:
- Where do you see yourself in 1 year? 3 years? 10 years?
- What three things do you like most about your job?
- What three things do you like least about your job?
- If you could change anything about our company, what would it be and how would you change it?
- What should we absolutely start doing today that we’re currently not doing?
- What should we absolutely stop doing today that we’re currently doing?
- What should we absolutely continue doing that we’re currently doing?
- How would you describe our company to a close friend?
- Describe the quality and quantity of training you feel you’ve received since coming to work here. What gaps exist in the training we’ve provided?
- Describe your abilities as they relate to your current position.
- Is there a different position within our company that you feel you are better suited for than salesperson? If so, what is that position and why do you feel that way?
- What is your total compensation? (Include your base, bonus and any perks like car allowances.)
- What should be your total compensation and how can I help you achieve this?
- Were there ever any promises made to you by anyone at our company that have not been kept? If so, please detail these.
- How many hours per week do you estimate you dedicate to achieving your goals at this company?
- In order to become the number one salesperson in the region, how many hours a week do you think you would need to commit to the company?
- What must be done to grow revenue and profit in your territory?
- What must be done to grow revenue and profit for the whole company?
- On a scale of 1-10, rate the selling ability of each of the other salespeople and yourself.
- How would you prefer to be managed?
Why These 20 Questions?
Why are these the 20 best questions to ask your new sales team? With these 20 questions, you’ll learn more about your marketplace and your reps’ ability to execute than you will with months of observations. Each question was designed to elicit a specific response or trigger a specific paradigm shift in the salesperson:
- Questions 1 and 11 tell you if they have ambitions beyond being a salesperson, and how to plan a career path for each sales rep.
- Questions 2, 3 and 20 tell you how to manage the respective rep. (I put Question 20 last because this one usually provides some great dialogue and an easy transition for a handshake and an “I’ll do my best, please keep me in line” from me.)
- Question 4 tells you if this person is just a complainer or someone who’s given real thought to the issues at hand and believes they know how to fix them.
- Questions 5 through 8 tell you how to manage up and across. (That is, what you need to gain for your team from the other department heads and from your supervisor.)
- Questions 9 and 10 set the stage for the amount and type of sales training and product training that needs to occur quickly.
- Questions 12 and 13 help you understand how much motivation money provides to a particular salesperson.
- Question 14 helps you remove all the animosity of previously broken promises (and every sales team is full of broken promises from the company). Of course, that’s only if you honor the broken promises of your predecessor.
- Questions 15, 16 and 17 are really kind of cool, because they reveal to the salesperson, out loud, that they’re not giving all they can.
- The aggregated answers to Question 18 will help you create plans to reach the company’s goals. (The salespeople really do have all the answers, you just have to ask them.)
- Question 19 gives you a sense of how everyone views their teammates, and which ones are the leaders and which ones may need development, retraining or a pink slip.
I asked the sales team to come prepared to answer all of these questions during their one-on-one meeting, but that they didn’t need to bring anything written – I would take copious notes (which I did).
Hearing a sales rep tell you, out loud, that he’s a 5 on a 1-10 scale is extremely powerful. This is someone eager to learn, and the self-realization that occurs gives them a voracious appetite for direction, development and sales training.
Do You Really Mean It?
Good salespeople are good because they can read people, and they’ll always know when you’re lying. The key to this questionnaire is sincerity. You have to be sincere about wanting to know the answers to these questions, and you have to be sincere about wanting to change the things that need changing. If all you do is ask the questions and take no action, your team will never trust you and they will never perform.
It would take dozen of additional posts to share with you how I used all of these answers to shape this group into the best sales team in the region, though suffice it to say that sharing a vision and then living that vision can do wonders for a rag-tag group like I had inherited.
I encourage any leader who is taking over as a new sales manager, or any manager who is simply tired of lackluster sales, to try these questions on their own sales team. As always, I welcome your comments… Good Selling!
Jay
February 6, 2015 @ 8:50 AM
Hi,
Your points are great and spot on.
How would you handle a pre-existing conflict between a sales and a technical manager under the new team that I will be heading?
Many thanks,
J
TheManager
February 6, 2015 @ 12:29 PM
Hi Jay,
That’s a great question, though without knowing the history of the conflict or the personalities involved, my advice is going to be less specific than you’d probably like.
At first glance, issues between tech and sales (or logistics and sales, or admin and sales) almost always come down to egos and contribution. The managers involved have inflated egos and equally inflated senses about their overall contribution to the company’s successes. Coming from the sales side, I’m almost always inclined to take the side of sales (nothing happens until someone sells something); but 100% of the time, I expect my sales manager to provide the working solution. I never try to put this onus on the other manager, as it will generally just inflame the situation further.
So, this means I need my manager to be the bigger person. To bury the proverbial hatchet and to suck it up for the good of the company. If he or she cannot, then they need to understand that they are probably not a fit for my team. (I need my sales team – and especially my sales managers – to do whatever it takes to drive the company forward. If this means eating a shit sandwich every now and then for the team, then so be it.)
This requires two important, public steps. First, my sales manager must apologize to the tech manager in front of the tech manager’s team. Something that sounds sincere like “Hey, I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I think you were right about _____, and I shouldn’t have tried to _________.” (Of course, this apology must be for something that really happened.)
Then, I need my manager to become insanely nice to the other side. Always going out of his or her way to greet that team and their manager with a genuine smile and a hearty “Good morning!” Kill them with kindness, if you will.
Eventually, with enough teeth-gritting and smiling, your manager will actually begin to like the other manager (and vice versa). (It’s called cognitive dissonance and it basically means that our inner self can’t be in conflict for very long with our outer self.) Your manager’s outward actions of niceness will eventually overpower his/her inner feelings of disgust for the other manager.
I’m hopeful this helps.
Good Selling!
Lauren Hoffer
December 30, 2013 @ 2:49 PM
Wow – Great timing – I will be taking over a new sales team in mid-January 2014.
I really enjoyed and would love to read additional ways you handled your new team. You mention in article “It would take dozen of additional posts to share with you how I used all of these answers to shape this group into the best sales team in the region, though suffice it to say that sharing a vision and then living that vision can do wonders for a rag-tag group like I had inherited”.
How and where can I read these additional post? Do you have a weekly blog?
I would love to learn more!
Happy New Year.
Thank you.
Lauren
TheManager
December 30, 2013 @ 3:05 PM
Hi Lauren – Thank you for your kind words. How cool for you to be taking over a new sales team next month – I’m a little jealous, because those have always been the most exciting times in my career.
I don’t post as regularly to this blog as I’d like. I’m helping build a couple of businesses right now and that has taken me away from writing; though here are a few posts on this site that could be helpful:
http://askthemanager.com/2008/10/new-managers-how-do-you-keep-from-getting-run-over/
http://askthemanager.com/2008/08/the-first-time-manager-dilemma-how-do-you-gain-respect/
http://askthemanager.com/2008/07/management-by-questioning-training-sales-managers-to-lead-in-tough-economic-times/
http://askthemanager.com/2009/03/the-great-necession-leading-in-tough-economic-times/
http://askthemanager.com/2008/06/indecision-and-analysis-paralysis/
Additionally, you may find some value in this online video series:
http://stevestauning.com/creating-an-appointment-culture/
Finally, if there is a specific question you’d like us to address on this blog, just send me a note from the comment box on this page:
http://askthemanager.com/about_management_leadership_development/
Best wishes!
The Manager
TheManager
August 15, 2008 @ 7:52 AM
Of course. All people, no matter what their job function, have a desire to be understood. Asking your new team a series of real questions gives you great insight into what they expect, but it also gives them a chance to be understood.
Chances are you are in your new manager role because the person before you failed in some way. It’s a good bet that your new subordinates felt misunderstood under the old leadership. Giving them a chance (at the outset) to express themselves, to see you listening to them, and to see you taking notes is invaluable.
Tye Mills
August 14, 2008 @ 11:32 PM
Has this strategy worked in other non-sales manager roles?
TheManager
August 3, 2008 @ 8:46 PM
Thanks Ian, we appreciate the kind words and we encourage our readers to check out your leadership site by clicking on your name (above) or by going to http://www.whatmakesagoodleader.com.
Best wishes,
TheManager
Ian Pratt
August 3, 2008 @ 8:13 PM
This is excellent; all three articles on leading a sales team are great. I have passed your link on to our sales managers to read. The structure here is what stands out the most. I also liked the focus of the manager on the employees, rather than on themselves.